Jawagal Srinath offering tips to aspiring pacers during his visit to the CCFC on Thursday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: In about a week’s time, Jawagal Srinath will know whether his 12-year old international career is over. The veteran speedster is keen to make the Australia tour, but he is not certain whether he will be fit enough to do so.

If he fails to make it, Srinath will bid the game goodbye.

The pacer, who was in the city to encourage the participants of the ‘ESPN Presents Scorpio Speedster with Timex’ contest for budding quicks, said: “I’ll play a local game next week and see how my knee shapes up. If I see it’s absolutely impossible, then I’ll call it a day.”

But he feels his knee is “slowly improving”.

Whether he goes or not, Srinath doesn’t think the tour Down Under will be as nightmarish as the last couple, when India went down 0-4 and 0-3, respectively.

“We’ve a good bunch of pace bowlers in the form of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Lakshmipathy Balaji. Moreover, the Indian side in the last couple of years is a totally changed lot. So, we can expect a good fight,” he added.

When asked whether the Indian team needs a bowling coach, he said: “Anil (Kumble) guides the spinners very well. It won’t be a bad idea if we have one for the pacers as well.”

Can he be regarded as a candidate for the post' “A point to be pondered over,” he answered tactfully.

Srinath feels, though the backup system in the form of the “Pathans and the Patels is quite encouraging”, India is still lagging behind when it comes to competing with Pakistan in throwing up rookie pacers.

The fact that India had to play in some of the most unresponsive pitches in the recent Test series against New Zealand may just be a blessing in disguise for the home team when they tour Australia. “After toiling so hard on these unresponsive tracks, when the bowlers see the ball flying around the place Down Under, they will surely be encouraged,” he added.